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Opinion Contributor

A vote for the digital water cooler

Congress may have unintentionally banned sharing at the water cooler, the author writes.

By CHRISTOPHER LIBERTELLI | 11/27/12 9:49 PM EST

Many of us discover movies and television shows through word of mouth. It is common for co-workers to gather at the water cooler, creating a community around a new show. And what we love, we want others to love. This natural impulse to share is increasingly taking place online through social platforms such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. For those who want to share, these platforms are terrific because they reduce the difficulty that hampers sharing.

Unfortunately, Congress may have unintentionally banned frictionless sharing at the digital water cooler when it enacted a 1988 law designed to protect the privacy of a consumer’s video tape rental history. Under this law, the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), a consumer may not be able to choose to share their viewing history with their online social network in an ongoing manner; no matter how informed the consumer is about that choice. My own company, Netflix, offers such a feature in the U.K, Canada, Latin America and the Nordics –but not in the United States. The VPPA has essentially forbidden consumers who chose to share video in an ongoing manner from doing so, even though they could do so for books, music and news stories.

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On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider H.R. 2471, a common sense modernization of the VPPA that empowers consumers to share their movie and television watching experiences through social media. This amendment does not diminish the privacy protections of the VPPA. It merely provides an additional way for consumers to consent to disclosing what they’re watching. In fact, HR 2471 embodies the gold-standard of privacy law: opt-in consent. That is to say, consumers who decide to take advantage of social media will do so in a knowing and informed way.

Should we have misgivings about all this sharing online? Perhaps. But sharing is a personal choice. I don’t believe federal law should prohibit consumers from sharing in an ongoing fashion so long as the consumer’s choice is knowingly and voluntary.

The House of Representatives already passed this common-sense amendment by more than a two-thirds majority. On Thursday, we hope the Senate Judiciary Committee will do the same.

We are doing lots of exciting things at Netflix that are changing the way people enjoy and discover television shows and movies. Approval of HR 2471 will help us and many others to build digital water coolers around which consumers share experiences in the 21st century. So, if you forget to watch the D.C. thriller “House of Cards” – Netflix’s first major original production slated for release this February - you might just hear about it from your Facebook friends.

Christopher Libertelli is head of Global Public Policy at Netflix Inc.